\n\t $\"temple$ <\/a><\/dt>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

Legends say they came centuries ago by underground cavern.
\nThe rivalry with low-lying Taxco El Viejo goes back in time.<\/p>\n

Tales say that the Tecalpulcans won the right to their hilltop
\nfor having hung the bell in Taxco El Viejo’s temple
\nby the powers of heroic preColumbian magic.<\/p>\n

$\"\"$ <\/a>
\nTecalpulco: Giraffe-like bonete trees dangle their pod fruit<\/p>\n

high above in silhouette against a cerulean sky.<\/p>\n

Slab stone doorways, and doors of hewn wood,
\ndoors of hand wrought steel. Brick, cinder block and adobe houses
\nwith red tile roofs and earth hearths with women making tortillas
\nout of corn that was grown by the family, soaked in lime water overnight,
\nand ground in the morning light of eternal village life.<\/p>\n

Mortarless stone walls eight and ten feet high;
\nline the streets and fence the fields and yards.<\/p>\n

$\"\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n

Underfoot: A stone paved street, going up to the Zocalo,
\non out past the football field, past the High School, and the Cemetary,
\nthe stone paving turns to a dirt highway out past
\nSantiago Temixco: bandit country! The Pepsi and Pan Bimbo trucos
\nare armed. And on to the mango and mamuey groves
\nand cool swift-flowing river of Paintla.<\/p>\n

From the Zocalo at the center of Tecalpulco looking north, far away \u2013<\/p>\n

against the dark mountains one can see a crease of lights or white shadows:
\nTaxco. A part of the city is visible at a distance, way above.<\/p>\n

Taxco is at 5800 feet altitude; Tecalpulco 4600. This is the southern drop off<\/p>\n

of the great central altiplano, the northern Guerrero escarpment.<\/p>\n

$\"\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n

Tecalpulcans are indigenous\u00a0native Mexicans,
\nrainy seasonal farmers.
\nMost families plant corn, beans, and squash
\nin the wet months of summer.<\/p>\n

In the dry months of December through May,
\nthe fields are a dusty desert
\nparched with thorny bush vegetation.<\/p>\n

The natives are adept rock masons
\nThe builder surveys the rocks strewn on the ground,
\nhe picks up the one he sees will fit,
\npacks it into the place where it will go
\nand proceeds to select another.<\/p>\n

In mortarless construction, the rocks need to be expertly tied together
\nand balanced; all this, the village stone-worker does in single vision;
\nnever does he pick up a stone, then put it down, look around for another.<\/p>\n

$\"Hernan$ <\/a>\n\t Hernan Cortez<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Hernan Cortez, the Conqueror of Mexico, opened the first silver mine \nin Taxco in the early 1500s. The mines have been in production, now, \nfor five hundred years. Today the mines are the number two employer \nin Tecalpulco with 64 men working down there. The miners are paid \nby the mining company, $40 to $50usdollars for six day week. However \nsince five years ago, the mines have been closed, due to a miner’s strike.<\/p>\n \n\t $\"silver$ <\/a>\n\t silver miner taxco<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The leading employer in Tecalpulco is the United States. \nToday, according to the village Comisario, \nmore than 200 adults of the village \nare up at the Northern neighbors’ working as wetback labor \nmostly in Phoenix and Chicago, California, Florida, North Carolina<\/p>\n In the 1940s, Tecalpulco was a remote provincial village.<\/p>\n In the quiet hours of the morning, \nthe boys would stand near the mill \nto watch the girls \nwhen they were allowed out of the parents\u2019 house \nto grind corn or draw water.<\/p>\n Youth would make elaborate very fine signs to signal their intentions \nto each other. With the infinite subtle beauty of youthful attraction, \nlove without words grew until a meeting could be managed.<\/p>\n Sometimes, a boy and a girl would elope \nand no one knew that they even knew each other!<\/p>\n In the patios of the houses, \nthe people were making mirrors \ncut out of tin sheet with metal shears.<\/p>\n The rustic artisans cut up thin tin into strips, \ncurled them and soldered these tin curls \non to the mirror frame surface as ornament.<\/p>\n And they made masks: \nShining, evocative, preColombian visages. \nSometimes the masks had eyes fashioned out of bone, \nwith a bit of polished clam shell inlayed as the pupil.<\/p>\n \n \n $\"mexico$ <\/a><\/dt>\n tin mask<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n In the nineteen fifties the silver jewelry production of Taxco \nexpanded dramatically as a long-term result \nof the intervention into Taxco \nof a Tulane University architecture professor by name William Spratling \none more gringo who fell in love with the Mexican people \nhe stayed to established the first modern silver shop *Las Delicias*.<\/p>\n \n\t $\"william$ <\/a>\n\t Spratling Silver Mark<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Today Spratling signed silver is highly collectible and reknowned \nfor the technical quality of execution and simple power of design.<\/p>\n \n\t $\"fair$ \n\t William Spratling Original<\/p>\n<\/div>\n This tradition has been recognized as among the highest quality \nfine silverwork in the world, on account of its expressive vitality \nand technical execution of innovative wood, stone inlay into silver.<\/p>\n \n \n $\"taxco$ <\/a><\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n In the 1950’s hundreds of families in Taxco supported themselves \nby silversmithing. So the population of Taxco became the serendipidous \nbeneficiary of Spratling’s genius and willingness to give to others.<\/p>\n http:\/\/www.burchardgalleries.com\/auctions\/2009\/jul2609\/01images\/tl164_1.jpg<\/a><\/p>\n The general acceptance of the Spratling silver jewelry product \nby the US and European market, also the burgeoning domestic market \nof the growing tourist industry made Taxco into the ‘Silver City’; \na city of silversmiths, with generation upon generation of hammerers, \nof polishers, arc saw cutters, solderers, casters, filers, and stonesetters.<\/p>\n Taxco, with its perfect climate and picturesque aspect \nwas in the fifties the scene of a Robert Mitchum film \nand for a while was something of an art crowd hangout.<\/p>\n \n\t $\"map$ <\/a>\n\t Mexico<\/p>\n<\/div>\n In the sixties, Tecalpulco’s tin mirrors and frames \nsold through tourist stores in Taxco. \nThe Tecalpulco craftsmen were also making \na flexible fish ornament overlaid in abalone shell.<\/p>\n The larger fishes had a heavy duty mouth fashioned for bottleopener. \nThe fish were built on tin sheet salvaged from tin cans. \nThe artisan would work the shell material \non the edge of a carborundum wheel \nmounted on a small bench motor \ntied to a lard can filled with cement, \ngluing on the abalone segments one by one \nas she or he had shaped it.<\/p>\n Abalone shell had been a prized material since the Toltecs \nin every Mesoamerican tradition of artifact. Spratling combined abalone shell \nwith rosewood and ebony in some of his great jewelry art.<\/p>\n \n\t $\"ABALONE$ <\/a>\n\t pacific blue abalone shell<\/p>\n<\/div>\n In the sixties, the abalone shells were huge, and saturated with iridescent \nblue green brilliance. The beautiful natural abalone overlaid on tin can sections \nled to a fateful innovation Combining the town tradition of tinsmithing \nwith the abalone carving technique of the flexible fish ornament production \nemerged: the Abalone Shell Belt Buckle for Western style 1 \u00bd inch leather belt. \nThe Tecalpulcan craftspeople produced about thirty or forty \nper week per craftspersonof these belt buckles, in their backyard workshops.<\/p>\n \n\t $\"fair$ <\/a>\n\t abalone shells<\/p>\n<\/div>\n In the seventies came the Abalone Shell Bracelet, \nwith perfect delicate eight petal daisy mother of pearl flower \nin a iridescent bluegreen background \nof shaped and pieced together abalone.<\/p>\n A demand for the new Tecalpulco jewelry products built up, \nas merchants sought source to replace sold product. \nTaxco merchants, with access to retail and wholesale customers organized \norders for production by the villagers. \nBuyers started flying into Mexico looking for the product. \nHundreds of families in Tecalpulco, Dolores, Taxco El Viejo, \nCerro Gordo, El Ejido Paintla, etc. \nwere supporting their needs by handcraft jewelry production.<\/p>\n \n\t $\"craftswomen$ <\/a>\n\t artesanas campesinas<\/p>\n<\/div>\n In the eighties, Tecalpulco experienced a boom in demand \nfor its products and all the other villages in the area started making \nalpaca abalone jewelry; also hundreds of shops in Taxco \nturned to alpaca abalone shell jewelry production.<\/p>\n \n\t $\"abalone$ <\/a>\n\t abalone shell hair barrette<\/p>\n<\/div>\n A vibrant wholesaler sector grew up in Taxco.<\/p>\n Some wholesaler families became quite wealthy on the strength \nof the abalone shell jewelry boom that continued the entire decade.<\/p>\n Those humble, attractive shell mosaic inlays of Tecalpulco \ngained worldwide acceptance and by 1984, \nthe alpaca abalone shell earring was handcrafted, \nand the boom re-doubled, and it went on until it filled showcases and racks \nin every last mall kiosk in New Jersey and Stockton, Vancouver \nand Daytona Beach, Hawaii, South Africa, Chile, Germany, Japan<\/p>\n \n\t $\"Abalone$ <\/a>\n\t Butterfly Brooch Abalone Shell Mother-of-Pearl<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The beautiful shell mosaic handcraft of Tecalpulco \nwas everywhere in the world!<\/p>\n The nineteen-nineties: fashions changed \nand the curtain rung down on the handcrafts of Tecalpulco.<\/p>\n The nineties didn’t want flowers or pretty things, \nit wanted tatoos, virtual entertainment, and Nike.<\/p>\n The tastes of more mature ladies who had oohed and ahhed and had \ncollected abalone earrings transmuted into aromatherapy and crystals.<\/p>\n At the same time, ferocious costume jewelry competition came in \nfrom the Orient, taking over the traditional export and domestic markets \nof the Mexican artisan. Every year the abalone jewelry was harder \nto sell, and the buyer would pay less for it, than the year before.<\/p>\n \n\t $\"mexican$ <\/a>\n\t Mexican Family<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Many local artisans gave up jewelrymaking, \nstill some don’t know how to do anything else; \na lot support their family on earnings from handwork; \nhowever poorly paid, it is often \nthe only source of income for families.<\/p>\n Gradually the artisans were forced to abandon their homes \nand the young and active ones have gone North as wetback labor.<\/p>\n Others, forced by the necessity of providing for their families, \nhave surrendered their miserable fate to the tombs of the mine.<\/p>\n The process of globalization of markets caused a grave crisis \nin the countryside of Mexico, that has borne down terribly \nall of this last decade. Colera re-emerged in the 1990\u2019s \nafter having disappeared entirely in the 20th Century.<\/p>\n Dengue fever too, has made its debut; \nthese scourges are markers for poverty.<\/p>\n Caught up in a very difficult struggle for the physical survival \nof oneself and one’s family, we, the women of Tecalpulco \nstill aim every day on this earth at a transcendental purpose.<\/p>\n The bow, with which that arrow is aimed, \nin Mexico, that bow is called : faith<\/p>\n The Artesanas Campesinas initiative was born \nin response to the extremely difficult and dangerous situation \nthe artisan communities of Tecalpulco discovered ourselves in \nafter the men had mostly disappeared \ninto the US illegal labor market scene \nand the women and children for the most part \nwere left to manage the best that we were able.<\/p>\n \n\t $\"artesanas$ <\/a>\n\t artesanas campesinas<\/p>\n<\/div>\n As poor as we are, we are working towards a bigger dream: \nthat of a much better world for our sons and daughters; \na world of ever-refreshed hope, and of new possibilities.<\/p>\n \n\t $\"cooperativa$ <\/a>\n\t Spratling Renaissance<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The Artcamp rural womens artisans cooperative is a positive effort \nto re-connect with successful traditions of handcraft jewelry production \nin order to bring about a renaissance of cottage industry in our locality.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Tecalpulco on a high hilltop looking out – over an enormous vista in all directions. The blue tile dome of the temple shines under the radiant orb of Mexico. Hernan Cortez, the Conqueror of Mexico, opened the first silver mine in Taxco in the early 1500s. The mines have been in production, now, for five […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":188,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/userblogs.ganoksin.com\/reginamedina\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/userblogs.ganoksin.com\/reginamedina\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/userblogs.ganoksin.com\/reginamedina\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/userblogs.ganoksin.com\/reginamedina\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/188"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/userblogs.ganoksin.com\/reginamedina\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/userblogs.ganoksin.com\/reginamedina\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":121,"href":"https:\/\/userblogs.ganoksin.com\/reginamedina\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2\/revisions\/121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/userblogs.ganoksin.com\/reginamedina\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}